Archive for 'July,2012'
Hogwash
Have you ever noticed that if you have an opinion about something it can easily be dismissed or agreed upon as soon as you know there’s a term or explanation for it? For example I used to reject as [...]
Fun With Counterpoint
What is counterpoint, and how does it invigorate all kinds of musical textures? Lawrence Schenbeck offers an introduction plus lively examples. [...]
I was just thinking
I was thinking about some of your comments about your systems: many of you mentioned that your systems were good enough to reproduce well recorded music as if it were live. I am with you. I [...]
Trumpets
After writing yesterday’s post about perfection I was looking for an example to share with you and then it hit me: Al Hirt vs. Louis Prima. When I was growing up my father, Don, and I [...]
Chick Corea
This month, I will attempt to serve up a Chick Corea “jazz sandwich”, with thinly sliced commentary “bread” and a healthy portion of musical “meat” (or assorted vegetables for those so inclined) and tasty condiments. Armando [...]
The thing about perfect
Perfection is an interesting concept and sometimes it serves us and sometimes it doesn’t. For example when a musician spends their life perfecting their craft to be able to play the music perfectly with note-to-note accuracy [...]
bring water to horses
Yesterday I modeled what would happen if you moved a perfect reproduction of a live venue to your home. It wouldn’t sound live because of the change of venue. We are quite capable of acoustically defining [...]
A different approach
Yesterday I promised you an interesting thought challenge that has to do with getting music to sound live in your room – something we mostly all agree our industry and our equipment falls quite short of [...]
Shouldn’t we be getting close to perfection?
We’ve got 60 years of experience designing vinyl reproducing equipment, 30 years for CD’s and approaching 10 for computer based audio. Wouldn’t you think with all that experience we’d be getting close to perfect by now? [...]
Which voice do you listen to?
In a comment on my posting about voicing high end electronics the question was asked “Is there only one ideal voicing?” Great question and here’s the entire quote. “And then it also depends on the venue [...]
Albert got it right
“Everything that can be counted doesn’t necessarily count. Everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.” Albert Einstein must have had high-end audio and measuring in mind when he spoke those words oh so many years ago – [...]
Voicing
Yesterday I happened to mention how we use certain elements to “voice” a circuit and that sparked a few questions. What does voicing an amplifier mean? Actually it’s a really good question because one would think [...]
Op amps and power supplies
In yesterday’s post we covered the problems with IC op amps concerning their huge amount of gain. Problem is, you simply cannot control how much gain they have and therefore are left to take what you [...]
Sounding harsh and compressed
Yesterday we pointed out that the vast majority of IC op amps were not designed to be high performance audio amplification devices, but rather general purpose functional amplifier blocks with a nearly infinite amount of gain. [...]
The good, the bad and the ugly
With apologies to Clint Eastwood and any fans of the Italian cowboy genre known as Spaghetti Westerns, let’s take a look at what’s good, bad and downright ugly about IC op amps and high end audio [...]
Just a touch of gain
In yesterday’s post we covered a tough subject: the differential pair that serves as our input to the op amp. From here it gets a lot easier so if you’ve made it this far, you’re in [...]
Diff pairs
Yesterday’s post covered common mode rejection, how it works what it is and what benefits it has for us. This feature of op amps is courtesy of a key central design element of the op amp, [...]
Common mode rejection
In yesterday’s post we saw how easy it is to design with an IC op amp. All you need are two resistors and two 9 volt batteries and you’ve got yourself a good sounding line stage. [...]
How to design an op amp
Let’s start today’s post by showing you how easy it is to design an amplifier circuit with an op amp. When an op amp is used in a circuit as an amplifier, all you need is [...]
Looking deeper
Yesterday I explained why use of the (then) new category of IC op amp was so darned attractive back in the 1970′s and still is today: easy to design with, reliable consistent performance and low cost. [...]
Op amps
I promised yesterday we’d get started understanding op amps. I know some of you already get them so I hope you can tolerate some simple explanations. This subject is actually very interesting because this class of [...]
The man who designed everything
In yesterday’s post I mistakenly called the great David Hafler “Bob”. Oops, I think I had “Bob” on the brain. Sorry. But speaking of history, I think the stories of the people in any industry are [...]
The mayor of Silicon Valley
When we first started PS Audio back in the dark ages of the early 1970′s there was no such things as email, the World Wide Web or, for that matter, personal computers either. The IBM PC [...]
We got no op amps in here boss
I am always amused when I read in a manufacturer’s marketing description that they don’t use op amps in their audio designs – when what they actually mean is they don’t use the IC versions of [...]
Stereo
This is the final in our little series on live vs. recorded. We’ve ben discussing recordings and how it is that with some types of recordings and setup we can immediately tell live from recorded and [...]
Best Classical Spring 2012
Our quarterly survey of the best new classical recordings. Music by Dvorak, Glazunov, Bach, Bizet, Mahler, and more. [...]
Pondering
Yesterday I proposed a thought problem once again. This time we compared the direct output of a stereo microphone vs. the recorded output of that same microphone while a group of acoustic musicians played in a [...]
Whoa Nellie
Yesterday’s post got quite a few of you riled up when I suggested a guitar pickup is just as sensitive to transients and subtle details and produces the same “simple” electrical signals we need to record [...]
The outer edges
We’ve taken a simplistic look at recordings and shown what’s probably obvious to most – that recording and reproducing simple electrical signals like those out of a guitar is rather easy and something we need not [...]
Making matters worse
In yesterday’s post I expanded the thought problem to using a microphone to now capture the live sound and then what happens when we play it back. It doesn’t sound the same. In fact, it cannot [...]
One step further
In yesterday’s post I put forth the idea that it doesn’t seem to matter sonically what you might feed into a guitar amp/speaker combo – a live guitar or a recorded version of the same – [...]
First thought puzzle
I find it valuable to create thought puzzles to try and answer perplexing questions about our art. I thought I might share a few with you and then post about some of the conclusions I’ve drawn [...]
Stuck in the middle
My friend and fellow audio designer Jeff Rowland came by to say hi the other day. Jeff’s always a welcome guest as he and I manage to nearly always be on parallel paths when it comes [...]
Recent Comments
- Tchaikovsky’s Fourth (7)
Soundminded: I’ve listened through the whole symphony again, this time in one sitting and I’ve changed...
Soundminded: While I’ve heard this music in the past, it’s been a very long time since the last time...
Lawrence Schenbeck: I had the same impression of the “fate” theme when I came back to the Fourth, to...
Soundminded: First impressions of the first movement, four ideas seem evident. Romeo and Juliet Overture stands...
Soundminded: This two disc set is from analog recordings originally made in 1975-1976. It’s DG 453 088 2....
- Microphones like lenses (16)
Dr. AIX: Terry, there isn’t any video on the DVD-Audio side…she’s not a world-class performer...
Terry Franklin: Dr. Aix, From what I just head from the YouTube at 44.1/16 sounded very nice. I am looking forward...
Soundminded: How much Valium did that woman swallow before she sat down at the piano? I’ve heard people say...
Soundminded: The problem of recording “they are here” meaning the sound you’d hear if the...
Terry Franklin: Just followed you link and left a message on your contact form.
- Microphones (8)
Dr. AIX: As a recording engineer and label owner, I’d like to contribute that not every engineer and project...
Soundminded: Ambiosonics (entirely different from Ambiophonics) as I understand it when developed to its maximum...
adam75: Interesting post. The vector/ scalar analysis you refer to is if course at the heart of ambisonics. I have...
Paul McGowan: I don’t think anyone is anything other than appreciative of your comments – I for one...
Soundminded: Paul, thank you for your comment. I want to make it clear I don’t wish to ruin anyone’s fun. Once I...
- Leveraging sound (1)
Bassman23: Can’t get lower mass than an electron – it’s hard to warp electrons too
- Andy Narell and Steelpans (4)
Keith Copeland: Hello, Thank you for your interest in my article and for the information on the Steel Pan. Yes, I...
stimpy2: I believe that Andy Narell’s pans were crafted by Ellie Manette who is I believe the preeminent...
- Pat Metheney (4)
Keith Copeland: Hey Neil, Thank you so much for your interest in my article! I, too, am a huge Al DiMeola fan and...
stimpy2: I enjoyed reading reading this article very much and have been at several of his concerts and up close...
- Serving it up (11)
Paul McGowan: Sure. The idea is to build an active differential low pass filter whose rolloff is low enough to not...
Paul McGowan: No worries – but I don’t actually have any control over where these post or when,...
stimpy2: I just joined the group and was under the impression (notice that I am not using the word assumed) that...
Rick Dieterich: I have been searching for a new sub(s) for my system and one brand I’m considering is the...
Soundminded: Does your use of the term “servo” in this context mean frequency dependent negative...
- The best way to organize music files and folders (4)
Dan Gravell: Great comment! It comes down to how your music player works. Personally, I don’t see filenames...
- What’s all the fuss about? (2)
Paul McGowan: Thanks Scott!
sbrinck: Paul The Munich audio show was the bomb !! I am extremely envious ! If you ever decide to quit your day...
- Treat the cause or the symptoms? (13)
Paul McGowan: Yes the apertures are located in the 1/8 space corners so they should be as effective as possible....
Soundminded: I’m quite curious and I must admit somewhat skeptical about how effective these frequency tuned bass...
Tchaikovsky's Fourth
I've listened through the whole symphony again, this time in one sitti
Microphones like lenses
Terry, there isn't any video on the DVD-Audio side...she's not a world
Microphones like lenses
Dr. Aix, From what I just head from the YouTube at 44.1/16 sounded ve
Microphones like lenses
How much Valium did that woman swallow before she sat down at the pian
Microphones like lenses
The problem of recording "they are here" meaning the sound you'd hear